31/12/2017, Cholera cases in Yemen,
since April 2017, now stood at 994,751, with 2,226 cholera deaths, out of a
total population of 28 million. Worst hit was the Yemeni port city of Al
Hudaydah, with nearly 150,000 cholera cases in a population of 400,000.

26/9/2017, Saudi Arabia lifted the
ban on women driving.

25/9/2017, Iraqi Kurdish independence
vote. This vote was opposed by countries neighbouring Iraq because it might
promote secession in their Kurdish regions. 93% in favour of independence from
Iraq, on a turnout of 72%. Some anti-independence voters boycotted the poll. Turkey
threatened sanctions, including a boycott of Kurdish oil exports.

5/6/2017, Two weeks after US President Trump visited the Middle East and
expressed backing for Saudi Arabia, the Saudis and their allies in the region
cut diplomatic ties with Qatar and closed the border. They alleged that Qatar
was supporting the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas and Iran.

2/1/2016, Saudi Arabia announced the
execution of a prominent Shia cleric, Sheikh Nimr-al-Nimr, along with 46 others
accused of promoting violent dissent. There were violent protests by Shia
Muslims across the Middle East.

28/12/2015, Iraq retook Ramadi from ISIS

24/9/2015, 717 pilgrims died and 863
were injured in a stampede at Mina during the Haj, Mecca.

14/1/2011, In the turmoil of the Arab Spring,
the Tunisian Government fell after a month of protests.

4/1/2011, Tunisian street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi died after setting fire to
himself on 17/12/2010. This sparked anti-government protests in Tunisia and
other Arab nations, which became known as the Arab Spring.

1712/2010, The Arab Spring began when a Tunisian
graduate set fire to himself in protest at police who stopped him trading
without a permit, after he had failed to secure paid employment.

3/8/2010, US President Obama announced the end of official combat operations in
Iraq.

3/1/2010, The UK and USA closed
their embassies in Yemen due to threats of civilian unrest and Al Quaeda
activity.

30/12/2006, Saddam Hussein was hanged for crimes against humanity.

5/11/2006, Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein
was sentenced to death by the Iraqi Special Tribunal. He was hanged on
30/12/2006.

12/1/2006, 364 pilgrims were killed at the Haj, Mecca, during the ‘stoning of the Devil’
ritual.

2005, A
referendum in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq gave a 99% vote for outright
secession as the independent State of Kurdistan. This region had been beyond
the de-facto rule of Baghdad since 1991. However by 2016 no actual declaration
of independence had been made, largely due to competing factions within the
Kurdish adminstrators of the region; this despite the break-up of Syria and
establishment of Kurdish control in the north-east of that country too. The
Kurdish ethnoc region also covers parts of western Iran and a large part of
south-eastern Turkey too.

15/12/2005, Iraq held its first
Parliamentary elections under its new constitution.

25/10/2005, US deaths in Iraq now amounted to 5,000.

19/10/2005, The trial of Saddam
Hussein began.

26/9/2005, US Army Reservist Lynndie England was convicted by a military jury
on 6 of 7 counts in connection with prisoner abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison,
Iraq.

26/4/2005, Syria withdrew the last of
its 14,000 soldiers from Lebanon, ending a 29-year military occupation of that
country.

9/4/2005, Tens of thousands of demonstrators,
many of them supporters of the radical cleric Moqtadr
el Sadr, protested in Baghdad against the US occupation, two years after
the fall of Saddam Hussein, in the square
where his statue was toppled in 2003.

14/2/2005, Rafik Hariri, Prime Minister of Lebanon, died.

30/1/2005, Iraq held its first elections, following the transfer of authority
from America to Baghdad. Braving the risk of suicide bombers, some 8.5 million
people, 60% of the electorate, turned out. However the Sunnis, 20% of the
population, largely boycotted the poll. A Shi’ite coalition, the United Iraqi
Alliance, won with 48% of votes cast; the Kurdistan Alliance came second with
26%. The Iraqi List Party, supporting Iraq’s US-backed interim Prime Minister, Ayad Alawi,
came a distant third with 13% of votes cast.

18/1/2005, In Iraq, an archbishop was
kidnapped by Iraqi gunmen.Violence and
bombings occurred on a daily basis in Iraq as the elections scheduled for the
end of January approached.

11/11/2004,Palestinian leader Yasser
Arafat (born 1929) died of a brain haemorrhage and was buried in
Cairo, aged 74. Mahmoud Abbas took over as head
of the PLO.

8/11/2004, 10,000 US troops attacked Iraqi insurgents in the
town of Fallujah.

28/6/2004, The US-led coalition formally handed back power to
the Iraqi Government, led by Iyad Allawi, from the Shia majority.

3/2/2004, The CIA admitted there was no threat
from weapons of mass destruction before the USA invaded Iraq.

1/2/2004, 251 pilgrims were killed
at the Haj, Mecca, during a stampede at Mina, in the ‘stoning of the Devil’
ritual.

13/12/2003.Saddam Hussein was
captured in a hole in the ground at a farm 10 miles south of his home town,
Tikrit, by US and Kurdish forces.

8/11/2003. The Red Cross pulled all
their staff out of Baghdad and Basra, Iraq, calling the situation ‘extremely
dangerous’. A bomb blast at the Red Cross HQ on 27/10/2003 had killed 12
people.

27/10/2003. 35 people killed in Baghdad
in the bloodiest day since the war ‘ended’.

8/9/2003. George W Bush secured US$ 87 billion from Congress for the
reconstruction of Iraq, and military spending over the coming year, bringing
the grand total of US projected spending in Iraq to US$ 130 billion.

29/8/2003. Car bomb at a mosque in
Najaf, Iraq, killed at least 83, including a top Shi’ite leader, Ayatollah
Mohammed al Hakim. 175 were wounded.

21/8/2003.Saddam Hussein’s cousin, Ali Hassan
al-Majd, known as chemical Ali, was captured by US forces.

19/8/2003. 22 people killed, including the UN
envoy to Iraq, as a truck bomb hits the UN headquarters in Baghdad.

7/8/2003,(1)Amrozi bin
Nurhasyim, who played a key role in the Bali nightclub bombing in
2002, was sentenced to death by firing squad.

(2) 17 killed and 60 wounded
when a truck bomb exploded outside the Jordanian Embassy compound in Baghdad.
Also today another US soldier shot dead elsewhere in Baghdad.

1/8/2003.The Hutton inquiry began into the BBC/Iraq dossier affair, see
22/5/2003 and 18/7/2003.

26/7/2003.Three US soldiers guarding a
children’s hospital in Iraq killed and four wounded in a grenade attack. Two
days earlier 3 US soldiers killed and 2 more persons wounded in an attack on a
US convoy in Iraq. There had been regular killings of US soldiers in Iraq,
about 2 or 3 a week.

24/7/2003.The US released gruesome photos of Saddam Hussein’s dead sons, Uday and Qusai,
killed in a raid by US forces on 22/7/2003.

22/7/2003, Saddam Hussein’s sons, Udai and Qusai, died during a US air raid on Mosul, Iraq.

5/7/2003, A bomb killed seven Iraqi
police recruits at a graduation ceremony in Ramadi, 60 miles west of Baghdad.

30/6/2003. Nine Iraqis, including an
Imam, killed in an explosion beside a mosque in Falluja. The US later claimed
it was an accident during a bomb-making lesson.

24/6/2003. Six British military personnel killed
and 8 wounded in two incidents in southern Iraq, both near Amara. Regular
attacks on and killings of US soldiers continued in Iraq.

27/5/2003. Two US soldiers killed and 9 wounded
in attack on army unit at Falluja.

26/5/2003. Further US soldiers died in Iraq as a
US vehicle hit a landmine in Baghdad, killing one and injuring 3 soldiers. Also
enemy fire killed a US soldier in a convoy near Haditha.

22/5/2003.Scientist David Kelly met
with BBC reporter Andrew Gilligan, in
a Charing Cross hotel. On 29/5/2003 Andrew Gilligan’s report was broadcast by the
BBC on ‘Today’. It was claimed that the intelligence community was not happy
with the claims in the ‘Iraq dossier’ (see 24/9/2002). Tony Blairdenied this claim. On 1/6/2003 Andrew Gilligan
claimed that Alistair Campbell, in
The Mail on Sunday, had ‘sexed up’ the Iraq dossier. On 6/6/2003 Campbell
complained to the BBC about Gilligan. On 26/6/2003 Campbell demanded an apology
from the BBC, and on 27/6/2003 Gilligan told a BBC news reporter of his
source (Kelly).
On 4/7/2003 the MoD warned Kelly against further contact with the media.
On 6/7/2003 BBC governors defended the Gilligan report. On 7/7/2003 Parliament
cleared Campbell
of ‘sexing up’ the dossier. On 9/7/2003 the press named Kelly as Gilligan’s source. On 18/7/2003 Kelly
went missing and was found dead, allegedly having committed suicide. See
1/8/2003.

13/5/2003.In Britain, Development Secretary Claire Short resigned over Iraq. The killings of US soldiers continued despite
Bush’s declaration that ‘the war was over’, with a US soldier killed in
an ambush on his convoy at Diwaniya. On 8/5/2003 a US soldier was shot dead
whilst directing traffic in Baghdad.

1/5/2003.President George Bush
declared the Iraq war to be over. US troops controlled, in theory, much of |Iraq;
however sporadic attacks on Allied troops, acts of sabotage on oil, water, and
other infrastructure, and car bomb attacks on the UN building continued since
then, throughout 2003.

16/4/2003. A huge demonstration by Shiites in Baghdad. The Coalition said this was
proof that new liberties were available in Baghdad.

9/4/2003, US tanks rolled into Baghdad, to
scenes of joy. A crowd pulled down a statue of Saddam
Hussein, with help from US soldiers, and the head of the statue was
dragged around the streets.

7/4/2003, The Iraqi city of Basra was captured
from Saddam Hussein’s forces.

21/3/2003, The city of Baghdad was ablaze under
the USA’s ‘Shock and Awe’ campaign in Iraq.

20/3/2003.A coalition led by the USA and the UK attacked Iraq. This was
without UN authorisation, see
5/2/2003.

19/3/2003, The USA bombed Baghdad.

18/3/2003, British MPs voted 412 to 149 in favour of using force against Iraq.

16/2/2003, Millions of people worldwide protested against the US threat of war on
Iraq.

5/2/2003, Against the opinion of UN weapons inspectors, US Secretary of State Colin Powell claimed to have
evidence of weapons of mass destruction and weapons research facilities in
Iraq. The USA and UK pressurised the UN for authorisation to attack Iraq, see
20/3/2003. Tony Blair, later dubbed ‘Tony
Bliar’, claimed Iraq could deploy weapons of mass destruction at 45 minutes
notice.

7/12/2002.Iraq issued a 12,000 page dossier of its weapons
programme, but claimed it had no banned arms.

8/11/2002.The UN passed Resolution 1441, by 15
votes to 0, giving Iraq a final chance to comply with disarmament.

12/10/2002. A large bomb hit the Sari
nightclub in Bali, a popular holiday destination for Australians and other Westerners,
and the only Hindu island in the otherwise Muslim republic of Indonesia. 202
died and over 300 were injured, mostly Australian tourists. Al Quaeda,
the organisation which hit the USA on '9-11', 2002, was blamed. Australia had
been instrumental in helping East Timor to achieve independence from Indonesia,
and the decadence of Bali did not fit with Islamic ideals.

16/2/2001, US and UK warplanes bombed the suburbs
of Baghdad, killing 3 people.

12/10/2000, Suicide bombers rammed a
dinghy full of explosives into the side of the US warship USS Cole in Aden,
killing 17 sailors.

20/7/1999, The death of King
Hassan II of Morocco
prompted widespread mourning across the Arab world.

7/2/1999, King Hussein
of Jordan (born 1935) died of cancer.His son became King Adbullah
II of Jordan.

16/12/1998.Unscom
withdrew weapons inspectors from Iraq after continued obstruction from visiting
various sites. Between 16 and 19 December, US and Britain bombed Iraq(Operation Desert Fox) to destroy its
nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons programmes.

31/10/1998.Iraq ceased all co-operation with the
UN Special Commission which was set up to oversee the destruction of Iraq’s
Weapons of Mass Destruction (Unscom).

3/10/1998,Al Quaeda joined with local Somali tribesmen in battle with US
forces, and shot down two US helicopters, an incident known as ‘Black Hawk Down’.

29/9/1998, The US passed the Iraq Liberation Act, stating the
US intention to remove Saddam Hussein from power and replace his regime with a democratic government.

20/8/1998, The USA launched attacks against the Al Shifa pharmaceuticals and chemical
plantin Sudan and cruise missile
attacks against Al Quaeda bases in
Afghanistan in retaliation for the 7/8/1998 embassy bombs.

14/4/1995. The UN allowed Iraq to resume partial exports of
its oil to pay for essential food and medicine. Iraq did not implement this
until December 1996.

15/10/1994.The UN demanded that Iraq withdrew military units
positioned near the border with Kuwait. Iraq complied.

7/7/1994, Troops from North Yemen occupied Aden.

14/12/1993.Yasser Arafat, PLO leader, made his first official
visit to Britain.

27/6/1993.US forces launched cruise missile attack on Baghdad
Intelligence HQ in retaliation for an attempted assassination of US President George Bush in April 1993.

8/1/1993.President
SaddamHussein
of Iraq continued to defy calls by Britain, France, The
USA, and Russia to move surface-to-air missiles away from the air exclusion
zone in southern Iraq.Iraqi Deputy
Prime Minister Tariq Aziz was defiant;
however the missiles were in fact soon moved, to a location unknown to the
Allies due to poor weather.

27/10/1992.Turkey sent tanks into northern Iraq as a security
measure against Kurdish separatist guerrillas.

27/8/1992.The US established a ‘no-fly’ zone over southern
Iraq, south of latitude 32 degrees.

3/8/1992.The US began forces manoeuvres in Kuwait, as a
warning to Iraq.

7/7/1992.Iraq again obstructed UNSCOM weapons inspectors, refusing them access to the Ministry of
Agriculture, where there may have been details of Iraq’s chemical weapons
programme.

28/2/1992.Baghdad was still obstructing UN weapons inspectors
teams, until sanctions were relaxed.

3/2/1992, The discovery of the lost city of Ubar, dated around
2000 BC, in the Arabian desert on the Omar-Yemen border, was announced.

1/1992, The self-proclaimed Muslim Parliament of Great Britain met
for the first time. This meeting was prompted by the Salman Rushdie affair.

4/12/1991.The American correspondentTerry Andersonwas freed by Islamic Jihad after 2,454 days in captivity.
Held since 16/3/1985, he was the longest-held kidnap victim in Lebanon.

18/11/1991, Terry Waitewas released from captivity in Lebanon (see 20/1/1987),
along with another hostage, Tom Sutherland.

6/11/1991.The last of the oil wells set alight in Kuwait by
retreating Iraqis was extinguished.

21/10/1991.The AmericanJesse Turnerwas released after five years as a hostage
in Lebanon.

15/8/1991.Iraq was required by the UN to provide
a list of all proscribed weapons and weapon development programmes.

8/8/1991. HostageJohn McCarthycame back to the UK after 5 years and 3 months kidnapped
in Beirut.

2/5/1991.The UN set a six-day deadline for Iraqi troops to
withdraw from the Iraq/Kuwait border.

13/4/1991.Iran opened its borders and asked for Western help
to deal with 1.5 million Kurdish refugees, as hundreds died each day from cold,
hunger, and disease. Iran felt more help had been given to Turkey, which had
not been as hospitable to the Kurds as Iran had. On 19/4/1991 the Allies took
over ground for Kurdish refugees just inside Iraq.

10/4/1991.The USA ordered Iraq to cease all military activity
within its borders.

9/4/1991. Customs officers in the West Midlands arrested four
men from two firms over alleged export of machine tools to Iraq.

8/4/1991.The establishment of a UN safe haven for Kurds in
northern Iraq was approved.

7/4/1991.Iran closed its border to fleeing Kurds, saying it
had no more resources to cope with them. Iraqi forces heavily suppressed
rebellions in the Shiite south and Kurdish north since the Gulf war ceasefire
in March 1991.

3/4/1991.Unscom
demanded that Iraqi missiles with a range of over 150 kilometres must be
removed, destroyed, or made harmless. UN Resolution 687 set out Iraq’s
disarmament obligations.

2/4/1991.Turkey sought UN help as its army turned away
thousands of Kurds at the border
fleeing the Iraqi army. President
Bush said he would not allow US troops to risk their lives in what was
an Iraqi civil war. John
Major sent £20 million of food aid to the Kurds but also would not
intervene militarily.

31/3/1991, Kirkuk was
recaptured by Iraqi forces, see 19/3/1991.

23/3/1991.Kurds were
fleeing over the Iraqi border to Turkey and Iran after the Iraqi army, having defeated
the Shiites in the south, turned on the Kurdish Peshmerga rebels. Many refugees
died of cold in the mountains on the border.

19/3/1991.Kurdish rebels claimed to have captured Kirkuk, the main oil city of northern
Iraq. See 31/3/1991.

16/3/1991.(1)Saddam
Hussein, speaking publicly for the
first time since the end of the Gulf war, claimed the Shiite rebellion in the
south had been crushed. He admitted the fighting with Kurdish rebels continued
in the north.

(2)Bush and Major said
they would maintain sanctions against Iraq till it paid for the Kuwaiti war and
got rid of its weapons of mass destruction.

10/3/1991, US troops began to leave the Persian Gulf.

5/3/1991.Republican Guards loyal to Saddam
Hussein fired on Shia rebels in the southern Iraqi city of Basra. The
Kurds in the north were also preparing to try for independence. Baghdad
Radio announced that the annexation of Kuwait was annulled.

4/3/1991, The Kuwaiti
Crown prince returned to Kuwait. There was massive destruction in Kuwait and much
had been looted. Almost all of Kuwait’s 950 oil
wells had been set on fire, creating a vast pall of black smoke and an oil
slick covering hundreds of square kilometres in the Gulf. The Kuwaiti
authorities began to impose martial law but there were determined calls for
democratic reform in Kuwait.

3/3/1991.A peace agreement was reached between Allied and
Iraqi forces after the Gulf War. In 1990 Iraqi forces under Saddam Hussein had invaded Kuwait, on August 2nd.
A week later USA forces arrived in the Gulf and in January 1991 operation
Desert Storm was launched against Iraq, supported by the USA, Saudi Arabia, and
27 other countries.

28/2/1991.Ceasefire in the Gulf. Fears of massive Allied casualties never materialised, and in the
event Iraqi resistance crumbled and 250 Allied
personnel were killed. Iraqi casualties are not known exactly but were probably
between 35,000 and 100,000. President Bush
called for the Iraqi people to overthrow Saddam
Hussein, but gave no actual assistance and both a Shia uprising in
southern Iraq and a Kurdish rebellion in the north failed. Iraq viciously
reasserted its power and hundreds of thousands of refugees especially Kurds
fled to Turkey across inhospitable mountain terrain. President
Bush feared the coalition would collapse if his forces went as far as
Baghdad and overthrew Saddam Hussein, an
action not covered by the UN mandate.

27/2/1991, Saudi forces entered Kuwait City, evacuated by Iraqi
invaders. US forces had moved in behind the Iraqi army and cut off its retreat.
The US lost 184 men; the Allies took 80,000 Iraqi
prisoners and an estimated 80-100,000 Iraqi soldiers died. Kuwait would take an
estimated US$ 50 billion to rebuild, and Iraq would cost US$ 200 billion.

25/2/1991.Iraqi tanks and troops fled from Kuwait. The Allies
pounded the retreating troops, not wishing to see Iraq keep its armour intact.
Over 270 Iraqi tanks were destroyed and over 25,000 Iraqi soldiers captured as
POWs. Many Iraqi conscript soldiers surrendered without a fight.

24/2/1991.Allies began land
offensive against Iraq. Heading
Operation Desert Storm was ’Stormin’ Norman’ US
General H Norman Schwarzkopf. US troops crossed from Saudi Arabia into
Kuwait and also crossed the Saudi border further west into Iraq, to wheel north
and east and encircle Iraqi forces around Kuwait. This manoeuvre surprised Saddam Hussein, who may have been hoping to repeat
the tactic of the Iraq/Iran war by luring US troops into frontal attacks and
then massacring them.

22/2/1991.The USA said it would begin a full-scale land attack
if Iraq did not withdraw from Kuwait by noon 23/2/1991. Iraq began
systematically setting fire to Kuwaiti oil wells. 150 wells were fired, sending
a huge pall of black smoke across the Gulf area. Five million gallons of oil a
day were being destroyed.

18/2/1991.The US assault
ship Tripoli and the guided missile
cruiser Princeton were damaged by
mines in the Persian Gulf during the Gulf War.

16/2/1991, During the Gulf War, two Scud missiles hit Israel;
one fell in the Negev Desert near the Dimona nuclear reactor. Meanwhile a poll
in Europe showed 1 in 3 people in favour of using nuclear weapons on Saddam Hussein if he used chemical weapons in the
Gulf War.

13/2/1991.500 Iraqi civilians were killed when the US bombed a
civilian bomb shelter, believing it to be a military bunker.

28/1/1991.Iraqi troops invaded the Saudi border town of
Khafji, abandoned by its residents as Operation Desert Storm began on
16/1/1991. Allied forces recaptured it on 31/1/1991.

27/1/1991.The Iraqis had laid 1 million mines in Kuwait to
halt an Allied advance.

26/1/1991.Seven Iraqi warplanes fled to Iran.

25/1/1991.(1)Baghdad
now had no water or electricity after continued bombing. Sewage pumping had
ceased because of no electricity. Bridges had also been destroyed. However the
Allies now realised that Saddam would not
give in because of bombing alone and a land offensive will be needed. 16 Allied
aircraft had been lost to anti-aircraft missiles in 10,000 sorties; most of the
Iraqi air force remained protected in bomb-proof bunkers. The RAF bombed Iraqi
runways.

(2)Iraq began pumping huge quantities of
oil into the Gulf, to hinder Allied amphibious operations. A slick formed, two
miles wide by ten miles long, harming wildlife.

24/1/1991.(1)The Gulf war was costing the UK nearly £30 million a
day in munitions, lost equipment, and operations spending.

(2)The Allies captured the Kuwaiti island
of Qaruh, the first part of Kuwait to be liberated from Iraq.

23/1/1991.Iraq suspended sales of petrol and diesel because
half its refining capacity had been destroyed by Allied bombing.

22/1/1991, Iraq set fire to two Kuwaiti oil refineries and oil
wells near the Saudi border. By the end of the war 732 of Kuwait’s oil wells
had been set on fire.

21/1/1991.Iraq threatened to use shot-down Allied airmen as
human shields against bomb attacks. Captured US airmen were paraded on Iraqi TV.

19/1/1991.More bombing of Baghdad, more Scuds hit Tel Aviv.
Scud missiles were also fired on Riyadh, the Saudi capital.

18/1/1991.(1)Baghdad
launched Scud missiles on Tel Aviv and Haifa. Saddam
Hussein hoped to provoke Israel into attacking the Arabs, thereby
getting the Arab world on his side. President Bush
called on Israel not to retaliate and promised to equip Israel with Patriot
missiles to destroy the Scuds in mid-air.

(2)Anti-Gulf war protests across the USA,
with 1,400 demonstrators arrested. Many more protested in European cities,
including Bonn, Berlin and Paris. However US polls showed 75% in favour of the
war, up from 50% just before the war began; 80% were in favour in the UK.
Anti-Western demonstrations took place across the Muslim world.

17/1/1991.Baghdad was heavily bombed, also other Iraqi
military targets; Iraq fired 8 Scud missiles into Israel.

16/1/1991.Operation
Desert Storm began. Phase One involved heavy bombing of Iraq, as US
warships in the Gulf launched Cruise Missiles on Baghdad. also gaining US air
superiority. In the first 24 hours, US aircraft flew 400 missions against 60
targets in Iraq. Phase Two involved destroying any Iraqi nuclear, chemical, and
biological weapons capability, and Phase Three involved pounding the Iraqi Army
from the air to pave the way for a ground invasion. Iraq attacked |Israel,
which had taken no action against Iraq.

15/1/1991.The UN deadline
for Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait passed,
see 31/8/1990 and 29/11/1990.

12/1/1991.The US Congress authorised the use of force against
Iraq.

22/12/1990.Saddam Hussein announced that he would never relinquish Kuwait
and, if attacked, would launch missiles and chemical weapons on Israel.

6/12/1990, Saddam Hussein announced that all 34,000 foreign hostages held in
Iraq since the invasion of Kuwait were now free to leave.

29/11/1990.The United Nations, in Resolution 678, authorised
the use of ‘all necessary means’ if Saddam Hussein
did not leave Kuwait by 15/1/1991, five weeks away. This was the first
authorisation of the use of force by the UN since the Korean War.

31/8/1990.The UN began
talks with Iraq. 60,000 US troops were now in the Gulf. UN
Resolution 678 authorised the use of force against Iraq if it had not withdrawn
from Kuwait by 15/1/1991. Saddam Hussein
urged on Islamic fundamentalists who argued for war against the US and linked
the issue to the cause of West Bank Palestinians, calling for Israeli
withdrawal there and from the Gaza Strip.

29/8/1990.In Vienna, OPEC states agreed to boost production to
make up for the shortfall caused by sanctions on Iraq.

28/8/1990.Iraq formally annexed Kuwait as its ‘19th
province’; Kuwait City was renamed ‘Kadimah’.

27/8/1990, The US
expelled 36 of the 55 staff at Iraq’s Washington Embassy.

26/8/1990.The US said it would allow time for sanctions to
bite before attacking Iraq.

24/8/1990, The Irish hostageBrian Keenanwas released from Beirut.

23/8/1990,Saddam Hussein made a propaganda blunder when he appeared on TV
with Western hostages, stroking the hair of 5-year-old Stuart
Lockwood.

22/8/1990.Jordan closed its Iraqi border to stem a flood of
refugees. Over 40,000 had already fled to Jordan, mainly people of Egyptian,
Far Eastern, or Indian/Pakistani origin. Jordan hosted 140,000 refugees, mostly
destitute.

16/8/1990.The US began a massive arms build-up in the Gulf,
called Operation Desert Storm.
The US sent 20 Stealth Fighters, 30,000
troops, and anti-tank weapons. Britain, Morocco, Egypt, Syria, and Saudi forces
were also on alert, and to a lesser extent, USSR naval forces. On 19/8/1990
Pakistan denounced the invasion of Kuwait and sent 5,000 troops to Saudi Arabia.

13/8/1990. Iraq ordered all Westerners in Iraq to assemble at
three hotels prior to being taken to key military installations to serve as
‘human shields’. Britain protests to Iraq after Iraqi border guards shoot dead
a British businessman attempting to flee Iraqi-occupied Kuwait.

10/8/1990.13 of the 21 members of the Arab League agree to
send forces against Iraq.

9/8/1990, US forces began arriving in Saudi Arabia, en route
to liberate Kuwait.

4/8/1990.President
Bush ordered US troops to the Gulf. The
European Community froze Kuwaiti assets, against use by Iraq.

2/8/1990. Iraq invaded Kuwait, taking control after eight
hours. Iraq accused Kuwait of stealing oil from Iraqi oilfields. The Kuwaiti
Royal family fled to Saudi Arabia and Iraq installed a puppet government,
claiming Kuwait as ‘Iraq’s 19th province’. Iraqis seized 35 British
servicemen in Kuwait. The USA sent troops to the Gulf. Egypt demanded that Iraq
withdraw. Of the Gulf states, Egypt and Iran were most hostile to Iraq; Libya
and the PLO were most sympathetic.Oil
prices rose to $26 a barrel (see 27/7/1990). Jordan was caught in the middle,
with links to Iraq and vulnerable to any UN embargo against Iraq. There were
concerns that Iraq would go on to attack Saudi Arabia, as Saddam Hussein called
for an uprising to topple the Saudi Royal Family, and a Jihad (Holy War)
against Israel.

State

Troops

Tanks

Aircraft

Population (1988)

Oil production (barrels/day)

Iraq

1,000,000

5,500

513

17,400,000

2,800,000

Kuwait

23,300

275

36

1,900,000

1,600,000

S Arabia

65,700

550

179

15,500,000

5,300,000

Saddam Hussein claimed to have been invited to invade by a ‘free
interim government’, which had supposedly seized control from the Emir of Kuwait. He also claimed Kuwait was no
longer an independent state but the 19th province of Iraq.

1/8/1990.Talks in Jeddah to resolve Iraq’s claim against
Kuwait failed.

29/7/1990.King Hussein of Jordan travelled to Baghdad to try and ease tension
between Iraq and Kuwait.

27/7/1990In an
attempt to avert military action by Iraq, OPEC agreed to cut production and
raise the price of oil, for the first time in ten years. The oil price was to
rise from $18 to $21 a barrel; Kuwait
had been openly flouting OPEC production quotas. Iraq demanded that Kuwait
forgive a US$25 billion loan extended during the Iraq/Iran war, claiming Iraq
was also defending Kuwait. In 2013 the oil price was around US$ 100 a barrel.

24/7/1990.Iraq sent 30,000 troops to the Kuwait border, accusing Kuwait of
stealing Iraqi oil. Most
observers believed this was only a bluff. See 19/7/1990, and 3/8/1990.

23/7/1990.The US
State Department declared it had ‘no special defence or security commitments to
Kuwait’.

19/7/1990.Saddam
Hussein expressed his anger at other
Arab oil states who were ‘overproducing’, so holding down the price of oil, and
‘damaging the Iraqi economy’. States such as Kuwait had considerable
shareholdings in Western companies, so benefited by a lower oil price. Iraq, on
the other hand, was building up a huge army from its large and growing
population, so wanted a high oil price to fund this. This was one of Iraq’s reasons for invading Kuwait. See 24/7/1990.

2/7/1990. 1,426Muslims were killed in a stampede in
a pedestrian tunnel in Mecca. In 43 Centigrade
heat, air conditioning failed in a tunnel containing 5,000 pilgrims. Panic and
a stampede broke out, and 1,400 were crushed to death.

22/5/1990, The leaders of the Yemen Arab Republic and the
People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen agreed to merge their two countries.

23/4/1990, Robert Polhill, aged 55, kept hostage
in Beirut for 39 months, was released. Libya’s Colonel Gaddaffi
had called for all Western hostages to be released. Radical groups such as Abu Nidal held more captives.

11/4/1990, British
customs seized what were allegedly parts for an Iraqi ‘supergun’, 130 feet
long, to be shipped from Teesport, Middlesbrough. The gun was expected to be
able to fire a 36-inch shell for over 200 miles, which could be conventional,
nuclear or biological. The manufacturers, Sheffield Forgemasters, said the
pipes were for the oil industry. On 2/4/1990 the gun’s designer, Canadian-born
designer, Dr
Gerald Bull, was mysteriously killed in Brussels, allegedly by the
Mossad, the Israeli secret service.

28/3/1990.Customs officials in the UK intercepted a cargo of 40
nuclear detonators bound for Iraq.

10/3/1990, Farzad Bazoft, areporter working for The Observer, was sentenced to death in Iraq for spying. He was
hanged on 15/3/1990.

11/1989, Iraq forcibly moved
between 100,000 and 500,000 people (mostly Kurdish villagers) away from its
borders with Iran and Turkey in order to create an uninhabited ‘sccurity zone’.

22/11/1989, A bomb exploded in West Beirut near
the motorcade of the Lebanese President, Rene Moawad, killing him and 23 others.

23/10/1989, 62 members of the Lebanese Parliament
agreed to an equal power distribution between Christians and Muslims.

8/8/1988.The Iran-Iraq war ended after 8 years, and 1 million
casualties. A further 1.7
million were wounded, 1.5 million made homeless, and US$ 400 billion of the two
country’s resources had been expended. Ayatollah Khomeiniof Iran accepted resolution 598 of the UN Security Council calling for
a ceasefire, despite earlier pledging to fight until total victory had been
achieved.

25/5/1988.The Iranians suffered reverses
on land in their war against Iraq. They were driven off the Fao Peninsula and
off land east of Basra (both in Iraq).

1/4/1988, Iraq was accused of using poison gas on Kurdish
villagers.

20/3/1988.Iraqi planes attacked the
Iranian oil terminal at Kharg Island, killing 54. Two supertankers were hit and
exploded into flames. The Iraqis had more fighter planes than the Iranians.
Iraq and Iran continued to fire missiles into each other’s capital cities.

20/12/1987.Iraq claimed it had repulsed an
attack by two Iranian brigades 125 miles north of Basra. Iran claimed it was a
successful lightning raid.

31/7/1987, 400 Iranian pilgrims died in clashes with Saudi
security forces in Mecca.

17/5/1987. Iraqi Exocet missiles hit the USS
Stark in the Gulf, killing 37 and injuring 21 sailors. Baghdad said it was an
accident.

20/1/1987.Terry
Waite, envoy of the Archbishop of Canterbury,
was taken hostage in Lebanon. He was not released until 18/11/1991. His captors
knew he was linked to the Irangate scandal and believed he was a CIA spy. In
fact he had been sent by theArchbishop of
Canterburyto negotiate the release of other
hostages in Lebanon.

28/10/1986, King Fahd of Saudi Arabia dismissed Sheikh Yamani
from his post at the Oil Ministry. King Fahd was dissatisfied with the low price Yamani
had set for Saudi oil.

1/6/1985, A TWA airliner flying from Athens to Rome was hijacked
by Islamist terrorists and forced to fly to Beirut, where the hostages were
held for 17 days.

18/3/1985.Both Iran and Iraq
claimed victory in one of the biggest battles in the Gulf War, six days after
an Iranian offensive began near Basra.

16/3/1985, American journalistTerry Andersonwas kidnapped in Lebanon, see 4/12/1991.

9/10/1984, Jordan mended relations
with Egypt when Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak visited Amman. Egypt had been
despised by the Arab world since the late President Anwar Sadat signed a peace
treaty with |Israel at Camp David in 1979. Now King Hussein of Jordan met with
Arab hostility for mending relation with Egypt, a move sparked by problems in
the Jordanian economy arising from a downturn in trade resulting form the
Iran-Iraq war.

4/9/1984.A large car bomb killed
23 at the US Embassy in Beirut.

20/12/1983, The PLO were forced out of Lebanon.
The Syrian Army forced Yasser Arafat and 4,000 supporters to leave Tripoli,
under arrangement of safe passage out by the UN.

5/8/1983, A bomb killed 15 at a Lebanese mosque.

18/4/1983,The US Embassy in
Beirut was hit by a car bomb, killing 63 people.

31/3/1982.A new offensive by
Iran in the 16-month old Iran/Iraq war broke the military stalemate that had
already taken 100,000 lives. By the end of
March the Iranians claimed to have taken 16,000 Iraqi prisoners, and by May the
Iranians had taken the key border town of Khorramshahr and begun to invade
Iraqi territory. In the next few months all Iranian territory was freed from
Iraqi forces. President
Saddam Hussein of Iraq reacted by launching air attacks on Iranian oil
installations in the Gulf. Iraq was losing the war and called for a ceasefire
but Iran was determined to press on and oust President
Hussein from power.

24/9/1980.Iraq invaded Iran, making
initial territorial gains. But by 1981 these were lost and Iran occupied some
border areas of Iraq. The Iranians could not capture Baghdad or Basra, despite
sending 250,000 men into battle. Iraq probably responded with poison gas. In
1984 the action switched to the Persian Gulf. Iraq attacked ships visiting
Iranian ports, probably hoping for an Iranian blockade of Iraqi oil exports,
which would have angered the West. Iran attacked ships serving Kuwait and Saudi
Arabia, to deter them from supporting Iraq. Iran suffered more, as its tanker
oil revenues plummeted. By March 1988 Iranian gains in Iraq had been recaptured
and the border was virtually unchanged; Iran then agreed to a ceasefire.

23/9/1980.Iranian planes attacked the
petro-chemical complex at Zubayr, Iraq. Four Britons and three Americans were
killed.

22/9/1980.Iraqi aircraft attacked Iranian
bases after some weeks of fighting on the Iran-Iraq border. Iraqi troops also
entered Iranian territory.This was the beginning of the Gulf War; Iraq wanted total control of the
Shatt-El-Arab waterway, for oil exports, but Iran claimed their mutual border
ran down the middle of this waterway.

9/1/1980,
Saudi Arabia beheaded 63 Shi’ite
Muslim fanatics for their role in the siege of the Grand Mosque in Mecca from
23 November 1979. 500 armed extremists had held thousands of Muslim pilgrims
hostage, and Saudi Arabia feared Iranian attempts to overthrow its government.
Iran protested at the executions, and the US was concerned about complications
to the Iranian US hostages crisis.

23/11/1979. Militant Sunni Muslims occupied the Grand Mosque
in Mecca,
holding out there until 4/12/1979. After false radio reports on 21/11/1979 that
US forces had taken the Grand Mosque, the US Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan,
was attacked by a mob and set on fire, killing four people.

14/12/1978. Newsweek looked at the growing influence of Islam in Iran,
Saudi Arabia, and Egypt.

13/8/1978, A large bomb in Beirut killed 150
Palestinians.

24/6/1978, The President of North Yemen was killed by a bomb as he received the
Credentials of a new ambassador from South Yemen.

20/6/1976,Unrest in Lebanon
following the murder of the US
ambassador forced the evacuation of hundreds of Western tourists to Syria by the US military.

17/6/1976, The US Ambassador to Lebanon, Francis
Meloy, was assassinated in Beirut. Washington advised all US citizens to leave
Lebanon.

22/1/1976, Ceasefire agreement in Lebanon.

12/1/1976, The UN Security Council voted 12-1 to admit the Palestine Liberation Organisation.

1975, The Shah of Iran and Saddam Hussein
of Iraq concluded the Algiers Agreement.
Under its terms, Iraq ceded ceded border areas north of the Shatt el Arab to
iran, and agreed that the Iran-Iraq border should run down the middle of this
waterway, not along the Iranian low-water mark on the north. In return Iran
ceased military assistance to the Kurdish rebeks in northern Iraq. Saddam
Hussein’s subsequent abrogation of this Agreement effectively
started the Iran-Iraq War (1980-88).

15/9/1975. Civil war broke out in Beirut between Christians
and Muslims.

13/4/1975. Fighting
broke out in Beirut between Christians and Moslems.
The fighting was sparked by a Phalangist attack on a Palestinian bus in Ain El
Remmeneh, and led to 13 years of civil war in Lebanon.

25/3/1975. In Saudi
Arabia, King Faisal was assassinated by his
31-year-old mentally deranged nephew, and Crown Prince Khalid Ibn Abdul Aziz acceded to
the throne. The US had regarded Faisal as a moderating influence in the
unstable Middle East.

7/1/1975, OPEC agreed to raise crude oil prices by 10%.

14/10/1974, The United Nations recognised the Palestine Liberation Organisation.

27/9/1970, PLO leader Yasser Arafat signed a truce with King Hussein
of Jordan after the PLO had been ejected from Jordan in a 10-day fight known to
the PLO as Black September.

30/6/1969, Spain returned the enclave of Ifni to
Morocco; however the towns of Ceuta and Melilla were retained.

30/11/1967. The British withdraw from Aden, and the Republic of South Yemen was formed.

1/9/1967, At a meeting in Khartoum, the Arabs decided to lift the oil embargo
that had been imposed on the West since the Six Day War.

2/9/1965, Tahir Yahya was forced to resign as Prime Minister of Iraq. The
vacancy was filled four days later by Arif Abd ar-Razzaq, who fled the country
on September 17 after only 10 days in office.

2/11/1964. King Faisal became King of Saudi Arabia,
succeeding his brother.

3/5/1964, In the Lebanese general election, Independent
candidates won the majority of seats, on a voter turnout of 53.0%.

14/5/1963, Kuwait was admitted to the United Nations.

21/3/1963. Aden joined the South Arabian Federation.

1962, Oil production began in Abu Dhabi.

12/1962, Libya centralised its government. The previous federal system, of
four provincial governments and one central authority, produced too much
inter-provincial rivalry.

20/7/1961, In a move to thwart Iraqi claims on Kuwait, the Arab League
admitted Kuwait as a member.

1/7/1961.British troops were stationed in
Kuwait in case of an attack by Iraq. In
June 1961 Kuwait gained
independence from Britain
and a week later Iraq called for ‘a
return of Kuwait to the Iraqi homeland’. On 30/6/1961 Kuwait requested assistance from the UK, and Royal
Marines were sent out. The British
troops remained for two years.

25/6/1961, Iraq claimed newly-independent Kuwait as Iraqi, on the
grounds that both had been part of the Ottoman Empire and arbitrarily divided
by Britain.

19/6/1961, Kuwait became independent.

21/12/1960.King Saud took over the Saudi Arabian
government.

7/1959, After two years of
unsuccessful exploration by oil companies in Libya, the large Zelten Field was
discovered in the Sirte Basin. In 1963, Libyan crude oil exports exceeded 20
million tons, and reached 125 million tons in 1968.

16/3/1959.The USSR
lent money to Iraq.

2/11/1958.Last British
troops left Jordan.

30/7/1958, A left-wing coup overthrew the Iraqi monarchy. The
West feared a Middle Eastern domino effect.

15/7/1958, US troops landed near Beirut to protect US lives and property during
rioting.

14/7/1958.King Faisal of Iraq was assassinated in a
military coup led by General Kasseem, and a Republic was declared.

2/5/1958, State of Emergency
declared in Aden.

9/3/1958, Yemen merged with the United
Arab Republic to form the United Arab States.

14/2/1958, The Arab Federation of Iraq and Jordan was
proclaimed.

1957, The Eisenhower Doctrine was declared by the
USA. President Eisenhower stated
that the Middle east was vital to its interests and it would give military aid
to any country on the region that requested it. This Doctrine was aimed at
curbing the influence of the USSR in the region.

11/7/1957. The Aga Khandied in Versoix, Switzerland.
He was born in Karachi on 2/11/1877, and during World War One, when Turkey was drawn
in on the German side, the Aga Khan was instrumental in reassuring the Moslems
of the British Empire that the Allies had no plans against Islam and to stay
loyal to Britain. In 1937 he was appointed President of the League of Nations. He spent World war Two in Switzerland and
withdrew from further political activity. In 1946, the year of his 60-year
jubilee celebration, he was twice weighed by his subjects and paid a sum of
diamonds of equivalent weight. The sum of US$3,600,000 which resulted was used
by the Khan for building schools and other community projects in Pakistan. He
was also famous as a breeder and trainer of racehorses, winning the Epsom races
five times.

16/1/1957.UK forces repelled an
attempted invasion of the colony of Aden by Yemeni forces. Aden was annexed from Yemeni territory by the
British in 1839 as a military stronghold and naval fuelling station. Yemeni
forces managed to overrun some villages just inside Aden but were repelled by ground based
rockets and air fire.

31/3/1956, The last British soldiers left Egypt, and 74 years of British military
presence in Egypt ended, as the Grenadier Guards and Life Guards embarked at
Port Said, Suez.

21/11/1955, The first meeting of the Permanent Council of the
Baghdad Pact, later called CENTO, was held.

1/11/1955.Yemen signed a five year treaty
of friendship with the USSR,
in Cairo.

9/11/1953, King Ibn Saud (1880-1953)of Saudi Arabia died aged 73; the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is named after him. He was succeeded by his son, Saud Ibn Abdel
Aziz.

2/5/1953,King Hussein II became King of Jordan,
succeeding his father King Talal, who was deposed in August 1952.

11/8/1952.Hussein became King of Jordan. He was
pro-Western, like the Saudi ruler, King Saud, and supported Arab Nationalism
against a growing movement for Arab Socialism.His father, King Talal, had been deposed by the Jordanian
Parliament due to mental illness.

23/4/1952, The oil pipeline between Kirkuk and Banias was completed.

26/1/1952, In response to the incident of 25/1/1952 mobs in Cairo led by the
Muslim Brotherhood attacked British buildings; Cairo police declined to
intervene until the evening.

24/8/1946, Elijah Muhammad was released
from prison in Milan, Michigan after four years, and became the Nation of
Islam's undisputed leader.

25/5/1946.Transjordan
(Jordan) proclaimed its independence, with Emir Abdullah ibn Husayn as King.
Husayn (born 1882) was assassinated in Jerusalem in 1951.

10/3/1946.Britain and France began to withdraw from Lebanon.

2/12/1945, The Arab
world began a general boycott of Israel, to geographically isolate the country.
The boycott was to cover not just companies trading with Israel or with Israeli
companies but also companies doing business with these companies. In 1977 the
US, under President
Carter, declared it illegal for US companies to participate in this
boycott. In the 1990s Israel insisted upon the dismantling of the boycott,
which was estimated to have cost the country some US$ 40 billion, as part of
the Peace Process. In 2001, however, the Arab League’s Boycott Office resumed activities
as part of its support for the Palestinians during the Intifada.

22/3/1945, The Arab League was formed.The treaty was signed in Cairo
this day, with Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan and Yemen as
members.The League was intended to
promote inter-Arab cultural, technical, and economic links, and to minimise
conflict between Arab states, but it remained a loose association with no
central authority. In 1979 the headquarters of the Arab league was moved from
Cairo to Tunis, after Egypt was suspended for
signing a peace treaty with Israel. It returned to Cairo in 1992.

24/2/1945, Egypt
declared war on Germany, largely to secure a place in the post-War United
Nations. The announcement of war was made to the Egyptian Parliament by Ahmed Maher;
as Maher
left the Parliament he was assassinated, probably by the Muslim Brotherhood.

11/11/1943.French troops
arrested the Lebanese government after it declared itself independent.

2/4/1942, The
British under Sir
Miles Lampson forced their way into the Abdin Palace, Cairo, and
demanded that King
Farouk either abdicate or invite Nahas to form a Wafd Party
government. King
Farouk was friendly with the Italians, and like many Egyptians had
pro-Axis sympathies, simply because they believed an Axis vixtory would rid
Egypt of the British. Meanwhile Rommel was advancing from Libya into western
Egypt. Success for Rommel would cut the Suez Canal and sever
naval communications with India. Lampson hoped that Farouk would abdicate but
instead he chose to appoint Nahas, whose Wafd Party were pro-British.

14/7/1941, A crisis
caused by a pro-Axis coup in Syria in May 1941 came to a conclusion. The Vichy
French administration in Syria had allowed Germans the use of Syrian airfields
to support Iraqi Nationalist rebels fighting British administration in Iraq.
Britain declared that Marshal Petain had breached an undertaking not
to act against the former allies of France, and invaded Syria with a mixed army
of British and Free French troops. Heavy fighting occurred around Beirut
between 8/7 and 14/7, although Damascus was spared. An armistice signed on 14/7
gave French troops and civilians in Syria and Lebanon the choice of
repatriation to France or joining Free French forces.

1/7/1940.Britain
was concerned that the French colonial administration in Lebanon and Syria had
submitted to Vichy rule. Britain was determined that Axis forces should not occupy
this region and mounted a naval blockade of Syria and Lebanon, causing severe
shortages in both countries. Meanwhile Arab Nationalists were demanding
independence from French control.

4/4/1939, King Ghazi of Iraq died in a motorcycle accident,
leaving his four old son to become King Faisal II.

23/2/1938, Oil was
discovered in Kuwait.

11/8/1937, General Bake
Sidqi, dictatorial ruler of Iraq, was killed by a Kurdish assassin.

28/4/1937.Saddam
Husseinwas born in
Al Awja village, near Tikrit,
Iraq.

1/4/1937, Aden, administered by the British Government in India since 16/1/1839,
became a Crown Colony.Aden
was useful to Britain as a
coaling station on the way to India,
and there was an oil refinery there.

13/12/1936. Aga Khan born.

19/1/1936, The Aga Khan III,
leader of the Ismaili community, was given his weight in gold, 16 stone, worth
about £25,000 to mark his Golden Jubilee (£3.5 million in 2016) to use on
social projects.

31/12/1935, King Salman of
Saudi Arabia was born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

14/11/1935, King Hussein of Jordan was born in Aman, son of King Talal.

19/5/1935. T.E. (Thomas Edward) Lawrence, or Lawrence of
Arabia, died six days after a motorcycle accident in a country lane
in Moreton, Dorset; he swerved to avoid two boys on bicycles, and crashed. Colonel Lawrence was sent to Saudi Arabia
to gain information about an Arab revolt in the Arabian desert. Lawrence
realised this revolt could be used to disrupt the Turkish war effort. He
persuaded the British Army in Egypt
to supply guns, armoured cars, and even aircraft. With these, Lawrence
led the Arabs on strategic attacks on railways and captured the town of Aqaba. The Arabs then
supported the British advance in Palestine.
Lawrence was furious when after the War,
the Arabs were not given independence.

20/5/1934, A brief
war between Saudi Arabia under Prince Faisal and Yemen under Imam Yahya over
possession of Asir province ended with victory to Saudi Arabia. The moderate
terms of the peace treaty imposed by Faisal ensured friendly relations between
him and Yahya for life.

6/5/1934.Saudi Arabian
forces captured the Yemeni city of Hodeida.
On 13/5/1934 Saudi Arabia signed
a truce with Yemen
in Jeddah.

8/9/1933. Iraqi King Feisal I, King since 1921, died in Berne, Switzerland.

3/10/1932,
Iraq joined the League of Nations.

20/9/1932, The Sultanate of
Nejd, the Kingdom of Hejaz, and their conquered dependencies were united as the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

4/6/1931, Ibn Hussein, King of the Hejaz,
died.

1930, In the USA, the Nation of Islam was founded by Wali Farad
(originally Wallace
D Fard), who proclaimed that Black Americans were descendants of an
ancient Muslim tribe.

30/6/1930. Britain recognised the independence of Iraq.

1929, Yasser Arafat, leader of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, was
born (died 2004).

7/12/1929, Agha Khan III was married at a private
ceremony in Aix les Bains, France, to a former candy store clerk and
dressmaker. He was founder and first President of the all-India Muslim League.

20/2/1928.Britain recognised the independence of the Kingdom of Transjordan (now
Jordan).

15/10/1927.Iraq made its first oil strike, at Kirkuk.

20/5/1927.Britain recognised
the independence of Saudi Arabia, under the Treaty of Jeddah.

8/1/1926.The new King, Ibn Saud,
43, renamed Hejaz as Saudi
Arabia.

17/12/1925, The siege of Jeddah ended in victory for Ibn Saud.

5/12/1925, Medina
capitulated to Ibn
Saud.

18/10/1925.TheFrench fleet bombarded Damascus following a
Druze insurrection that began on 18/7/1925.

18/7/1925, Insurrection by
the Druze in Syria, against French rule..

4/2/1925, Robert Koldeway, the archaeologist who excavated
Babylon, died.

20/10/1924, Ibn Saud seized control of Mecca, defeating the Hashemites.

25/5/1923, The State of
Transjordan, now Jordan, became independent.

21/7/1921, The Spanish army was defeated by Moroccan nationalists
at Annual.The Spanish sustained
over 12,000 casualties.Adb-E-Krim,
nationalist leader, was eventually defeated by a Franco-Spanish force in 1926. Abd E Krim was held on the island of
Reunion till 1947 but was then given permission to live in France.However
he succeeded in escaping to Egypt where he became an inspiration to Arab
nationalism generally.

23/8/1921.Emir Faisal was crowned King of Iraq with British consent.
However he then asserted his independence from Britain, demanding independent
nation status rather than British mandate status. In October 1921 a compromise
was reached under which Iraq
became independent but tied to Britain
for the duration of the mandate, till 1930. After 1930 Iraq accepted a continued British presence at
the airbases of Basra and Habbaniya, useful
staging posts en route to India.
Iraq remained a political client of
Britain until 1958 when King Feisal II was
overthrown in a coup.

11/7/1921. The Iraqi Council of State unanimously voted for Faisal
to be King.

23/6/1921, Emir Faisal arrived at Basra, after an Iraqi
plebiscite showed 96% approval for his appointment as King of Iraq.

18/12/1920.Britain and France agreed on the borders of Syria and Palestine.

1/9/1920.France proclaimed
the creation of the state of Lebanon,
with Beirut as
its capital.

31/8/1920, Under the
decree of General Giraud, France enlarged the Sanjak of Lebanon (Mount Lebanon)
at Syria’s expense, adding Tripoli, Sidon, Tyre and the Bekaa plain. Greater
Lebanon now had a small Christian majority, but the Muslim population had a
higher birth rate.

24/7/1920.A French
expeditionary force occupied Damascus and the port of Aleppo. The Emir Faisal, installed by the
British in March, fled.

5/5/1920, Britain
and France rejected a declaration of Syrian independence and, hastily convening
a meeting of the Supreme Council of the League of Nations, they declared the
intention of dividing Lebanon from Syria (both under French control) and Iraq
(undivided) under British control.

9/10/1919, The General Company for the Ports of Iraq
was established. It is a Government department responsible for the management
of Iraqi ports and navigation in Iraqi territorial waters.

21/6/1916.Hussein, the Grand Sheikh of Mecca,
declared war on Ottoman Turkey with the aim of achieving Arabia’s independence from Britain.

9/6/1916.Sherif Hussein of Mecca
led a revolt against the Ottoman Turks. The Arabs were angered by the
Young Turks nationalist and secular policies.

29/9/1911. Italy
declared war on Turkey, having been assured
of the neutrality of other European countries.The Italian Navy bombarded Preveza, and
Italian forces landed at Tripoli
and in Cyrenicia. This was in retaliation for the alleged mistreatment of
Italians in Libya. The Italians expected the Arabs to welcome them as
liberators from Turkish rule, but instead the Arabs sided with the Turks in
resisting Italian rule. In May 1912 Italy invaded some islands off Turkey,
including Rhodes, to put further pressure on Turkey. Then Italy had some
unexpected good fortune when in 1912 Montenegro, Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece
started the Balkan War against Turkey, forcing the Ottomans to surrender Libya
to Italy. However Arab resistance continued and despite a permanent Italian
garrison of 50,000 troops Italian rule only covered Tripoli and other major
towns. At least, though, Italy could now claim to have its own African colony.

20/1/1902, The beginnings of Saudi Arabia. The
Bedouin warrior, Abdul Aziz ibn Saud, 20-year old Emir of the Wahhabi,
seized Riyadh, capital of the Nejd. He became a focus for the Arab nationalist
movement.

1890, Britain’s first mosque opened, at Woking, Surrey.

23/3/1889, The Ahmadiyya
Islamic Movement was founded by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad in India.

15/8/1888,T E (Thomas Edward) Lawrence, British soldier
and writer known as Lawrence of Arabia, was born at Tremadoc,
Wales.

20/5/1883, Faisal I,
King of Iraq was born.

3/7/1880, Morocco’s
independence was recognised by the European powers and by Russia.

1867, The Deoband, or
House of Learning, was established as a centre of Islamic theology in India by Muhammad Abid
Husain in the Saharanpur district of Uttar Pradesh.

16/1/1839.The British took
over Aden, annexing it to British India.This followed the mistreatment of a British crew shipwrecked there in
1837 and the Sultan’s failure to sell the town to the British as promised by
his father.

1806, The Wahabis took Mecca.

1760, The Wahabi branch of Islam was
founded by Muslim scholar, Abd-el-Wahab (1703-92). He wanted to restore a pure, original, version
of Islam, His teachings gained credence across much of the Arabian Peninsula.

10/2/1258.The Siege of Baghdad ended with a battle in which the Hulagu Khan's (grandson
of Ghangiz
Khan) Mongol
forces overran Baghdad, then the leading centre of Islamic culture and learning
and capital of the Abbasid Caliphate. They burned the imperial city to the
ground in a looting spree lasting seven days, killing as many as 1,000,000
citizens. The attack was in revenge for the murder of three diplomnatic envoys
sent by the Mongols to the court of Khwarazm-Shah, ruler of Baghdad.

2/12/1187. Jerusalem surrendered to Saladdin (see
2/11/1192). Saladdin was born in 1138, in Tikrit (Saddam Hussein’s native
town) of Kurdish parents andwas
educated in Syria. In 1164 he accompanies his uncle on a military campaign in
Egypt. The aim was to substitute Sunni for Shia Islam there, and also to drive
the CrusaderFranks out of the Levant. The local Syrian leader
died in 1174 and Saladdin defeated his 11 year old successor and seized power.
The Abbasid Caliph in Baghdad gave Saladdin power over all the lands from
Morocco to Syria; Saladdin later extended his rule into Mesopotamia. Saladdin
also subdued the Assassins, a Muslim sect that had twice tried to kill him. He
now attacked the Crusaders, and on 1 July 1187 captured Tiberias after a
six day siege.

After the capture of Jerusalem by Saladdin,
the Franks were almost evicted from the region, holding on only at
Antioch, Tripoli, and Tyre. European states set aside their differences in
panic and three rulers; Richard I of England,
Frederick Barbarossa of Germany, and
Philip Augustus of France, set out on a thirdCrusade. The Crusaders marched on Muslim-held Acre, Saladdin
arrived, and there ensued a long battle, control swinging back and forth. After
two years, Acre fell to the Crusaders. Peace negotiations began, (see
2/11/1192), the end result being a marriage of his daughter with Saladdin’s
brother, Al-Malik, who was knighted by Richard. The peace gave the coast to the
Europeans and the interior to the Muslims. In February 1188 Saladdin fell ill
with a fever and died 12 days later aged 55.

800, The astrolabe was in common usage across the Islamic world. It was used
to gather astronomical data, and to determine
the correct prayer times. See also maritime travel, 1481.

30/7/762, The city of Baghdad was founded by Caliph al-Mansur. The city was completed in 766, by 100,000
labourers; it was circular and 1.5 miles in diameter.

749, The Abbasid Dynasty was established in
Baghdad, ruling until the Mongol Invasion of 1258. They claimed descent from
Abbas, uncle of Mohammed.

682, Arab Islamic
armies seized what is now Morocco from the Vandals. The Vandals had taken the
region, thern known as Mauretania, from the Roman Empire in 429 AD.

10/10/680.Al-Husayn, son of Ali, was
killed in battle at Kerbala. He was fighting a rival caliph (successor), Yazid, a Sunni Moslem of the Ummayad dynasty. His
death gave birth to Shi’ism; a dissident group of Moslems who claimed
that only the descendants of Mohammed could rightfully interpret the Koran.
They saw Al-Husayn as a
martyr.

652, Death of Abbas, uncle of the Prophet
Mohammed, who gave his name to the Abbasid Dynasty.

17/9/642. Alexandria, Egypt,
surrendered to the Arabs led by Amr Ibn Al-As. Amr invaded
Syria in 633 and attacked Egypt in 639, taking Pelusium in January 640 and
Heliopolis in June 640. In 646 Amrdefeated a Greek attempt to retake
Alexandria. Amr died, as governor of Egypt, on 6/1/664.
The Arabs moved on south to conquer Nubia, also conquering Cyrenicia and
Tripolitania in 643.

6/7/640, The Battle of
Heliopolis was fought between Arab Muslim armies and the Byzantine Empire.

15/8/636.The Byzantine army
was crushed by the Moslem Arabs at the Battle of Yarmuk, on the River Yarmuk,
east of the Sea of Galilee. The Arabs, who took Damascus in 635, now controlled
all of Syria. In 637 the Arabs destroyed the Persian army at the Battle of
Qadisiyya. Jerusalem was captured by the Arabs in 638 under Caliph Umar.

635, Basra was founded as a port and trading
city at the estuaries of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.

30/7/634, The Byzantine army of Emperor
Heraclius, defending Damascus against an alliance of Arab raiders, was defeated
by Khalid at the Battle of Ajnadayn in southern Palestine.

8/6/632. Mohammeddied, aged about 62.He was buried in Mecca.See 16/7/622.

16/7/622. The traditional starting day of the Islamic era,
when Mohammad fled persecution in Mecca for the city of Medina, then
known as Yattrib. This flight is called the Hejirah. In Arabia around 610, Mohammed had called
for an end to the demons and idols of the Arab religion and to
convert to monotheistic worship of Allah. Born around 570, Mohammed was
of the Quraysh tribe, a Bedouin tribe in the Arabian peninsula. This tribe
occupied Mecca, a wealthy caravan trading centre, and Mohammed was married to a
wealthy widow. Arabs also came to Mecca to worship at the Kaaba, a black
meteoric stone of which the Qurayshi are guardians. Mohammed denounced
the idol worship associated with the Kaaba, and made enemies of some
wealthy merchants, especially with his calls to help the poor. Mohammed died on 8/6/632. He saw himself as
an instrument of God. His new religion was called Islam, meaning submission;
its adherents were Moslems, or those who submit. In 630 the citizens of Mecca
accepted his new religion; in return Mohammed agreed
that the Kaaba should remain as a place of pilgrimage for Moslems.

7/9/2017, Four Israeli jets fired missiles at a Syrian
facility believed to be a site of chemicals weapons production, killing two
Syrians.

6/4/2017, US
President Trump ordered the
firing of 59 Tomahawk missiles at the Shayrat Airbase, Syria, in response to
the gas attack
of 2/4/2017. 4 were killed. Russia, an ally of Assad, was angry and said the
incident had nearly started a war between Russia and the US. Trump
said he might fire more missiles into Syria.

4/4/2017, 58 were killed by poison gas in the Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun. Government forces under
Assad
were blamed.

28/2/2017, Syria’s close ally Russia, also China, vetoed a UN Security Council
resolution authorising sanctions against the Syrian government for use of chemical weapons.

13/12/2016, Aleppo was completely taken by Syrian Government forces,
after rebel fighters were defeated, with Russian assistance. However the Syrian
civil war, which had begun in 2011, continued, and fighting was still reported
in the Aleppo area.

24/8/2016, The United Nations determined that the Syrian government twice used
helicopters to deploy chlorine gas against its opponents, in civilian
areas in the northern Idlib province. A later report held the government
responsible for a third attack. The attacks occurred in 2014 and 2015. The
panel also found that ISIS had used mustard gas.

31/5/2016, 25 people died in airstrikes in Idlib, Syria.

24/11/2015, Turkey shot down a Russian jet fighter that was taking part in
Russia’s pro-Assad campaign in Syria, against both ISIS and non-ISIS rebels.
Turkey said the aircraft had transgressed into Turkish airspace, and was warned
several times. Russia denied the warnings, and it appeared the jet had at most
been in Turkish airspace for 2 or 3 seconds as it (might have) crossed a finger
of Turkish territory jutting into Syria.

12/11/2015, ‘Jihadi
John’ was killed by a US drone strike in the ISIS stronghold of
Raqqah, northern Syria.

7/8/2015, The U.N. Security Council authorised investigators to probe reports of
chemical weapons
use in Syria, as reports circulated of repeated chlorine gas attacks by government
forces against civilians in opposition-held areas. Chlorine gas, though not as
toxic as nerve agents, can be classified as a chemical weapon depending on its
use.

1/4/2015, ISIS forces took Palmyra.

29/10/2014, 150 Kurdish fighters set off from Erbil (Kurdish Iraq) to travel
throughTurkish territory to reinforce
Kurdish fighters across the Turkish-Syria border battling ISIS in the Syrian
border town of Kobani. ISIS began to lose ground there, as Syrian Kurds were
reinforced by US arms drops and US air strikes against ISIS. The fight for
Kobani assumed increased importance as the global TV media focussed on the
battle from just across the border in Turkey. The issue of Turkey allowing
Kurdish reinforcements across its territory was sensitive because Turkey has
its own Kurdish minority region in the south-east.

22/9/2014, A US-led coalition began air strikes against ISIS in Syria.

23/6/2014, The Organization
for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said it had removed the last of the
Syrian government's chemical weapons. Syrian opposition officials maintained
that the government's stocks were not fully accounted for, and that it retained
supplies.

14/1/2014, ISIS forces took Raqqa, Syria.

3/1/2014, Anti-Assad
groups in northern Syria united against ISIS.

14/10/2013, Syria became a signatory to the Chemical Weapons Convention,
prohibiting it from producing, stockpiling or using chemical weapons.

27/9/2013, The UN Security Council ordered Syria to account for
and destroy its stocks of chemical weapons, following a surprise agreement
between the USA and Russia, so averting US airstrikes. Use of force was
threatened by the UN if Syria did not comply.

31/8/2013, US President Obama desired to carry out punitive airstrikes against
the Syrian government, but Congress did not support the idea.

21/8/2013, Hundreds of people suffocated in rebel-held suburbs
of the Syrian capital, with many suffering from convulsions, pinpoint pupils,
and foaming at the mouth. U.N. investigators visited the sites and determined
that ground-to-ground missiles loaded with sarin were fired on civilian areas while residents
slept. The U.S. and others blamed the Syrian government, the only party to the
conflict known to have sarin gas.

5/6/2013, In the Syrian civil war, the town of
Qusayr was recaptured by pro-Assad forces.

7/4/2013, The Syrian government launched an air
raid on rebels in Aleppo, killing 15 people.

19/3/2013, 26 Syrians, including a dozen Government soldiers, were killed in a gas attack
on the town of Khan-al-Assal,
northern Syria. A UN investigation found that sarin nerve gas had been used,
but could not identify the source.

20/8/2012, US President Obama strongly cautioned the Syrian Government against
any use of chemical weapons.

19/7/2012, Groups
opposed to the regime of Syria’s leader, Bashar al
Assad, attacked the city of Aleppo. Aleppo became divided into a
pro-regime west and a pro-rebel east.

18/8/2011, US President Obama called on Syrian President Assad to resign, and
froze Syrian assets in the US.

31/7/2011, In Syria, an army raid on the town
of Hama killed over 120. So far the Syrian civil war had claimed 3,000 lives.

12/6/2011, Thousands of Syrians fled into Turkey to escape the civil war.

1/4/2011, Large
protests by Syrian civilians against their Government after Friday prayers.

18/3/2011, Further protests in Deraa over the detention by
security forces of a group of boys accused of painting anti-govermnment
graffiti on the walls of their school. Earlier, on 15/3/2011, protests against
the boys’ detention had taken place in Damascus. On 18/3/2011 Syrian government
forces opened fire in Deraa, killing four people. These are regarded as the first deaths in the Syrian civil war.

6/3/2011, Unrest in
Deraa, Syria.

10/6/2000, Hafez al Assad, President of Syria, died.

29/9/1961, Syria seceded from the United
Arab Republic after anti-Egyptian uprisings.

6/1936. Syria and France
negotiated a Treaty of Independence, to take effect in 1939; Hashim
al-Atassi was elected to be the first President of the newly
independent country. However the French legislature never ratified the Treaty,
and in 1940 France fell to the Nazis and the Vichy French Government took over.
At this point British and Free French forces took over Syria, consolidating
theor control over the country in July 1941. After World War Two, Syrian Nationalists
forced the French to leave the country and a Republican Government took over
the running of Syria.

1925, Druze revolt in Damascus.
French High Commissioner General Sarrail ordered the bombardment of
this area of the city.

For events in
the Syria region during Roman and Byzantine times see Roman Empire